T5 introduced a pretty useful new ship class: the Armed Packet, a 300 ton, Jump 3 ship providing “unscheduled passenger service for those in a hurry. The crew can be trusted, but these little ships still find themselves jumping in harm’s way.” For my money, this is an excellent ship for PCs to tool around in.

Although T5 doesn't give stats on this ship, Rob Eaglestone had come up with his own design that helped guide me as I tried out the Mongoose 2e High Guard design rules. I also gave a shot at drawing up some deck plans:

To comment on the deck plan, I would expect the crew and passenger areas to be separate, and the crew or staff not to have to travel through the passenger area or make some climb through the engine room and cargo for their regular work shifts.

Either the engineer is stomping through the passenger living room in work boots (0/10 on ship's spacebook page for that), or the staff (on a passenger ship, people that support the passengers like hairdressers) is climbing all over the engines to get back to their cabin and making the engineer stressed (how many rules about unsupervised untrained people in engineering does this violate?), or the crew can't get to the bridge without going through the cargo hold and losing you your cargo security certification.

The free trader is a good example with all the passengers up at the top on their own deck.

Garnfellow wrote: ↑
Although I'm not 100% committed to the aerofins, the T5 description of airframe certainly sounds like an MgT streamlined ship with aerofins.

They are not exactly the same. MgT2 Aerofins is perhaps closest to T5 Foldable Fins.

Aerofins are very good, they are also expensive at 15 Dt ≈ three staterooms with commons.

Garnfellow wrote: ↑
I did wonder about that . . . what would be a reasonable downgrade?

The absolute minimum is Basic systems 60 Power + 90 Power for either M-drive or J-Drive = 150 Power.
With 180 Power (12 Dt) you can run all systems with a small margin. If you need more Power you can temporarily reduce power to Basic Systems.

Garnfellow wrote: ↑
MCr125 would be closer to the costs Rob had for his T5 version, so I would love to find an error. My cost also includes a 10% discount for a standard design.

Right now I've got a couple tons devoted to "missile storage" in keeping with Rob's T5 design, but is this worth it? I didn't see any Mongoose design that had missile storage. 2 tons missile storage is 24 missiles, which is "only" 4 extra shots with two triple turrets.

Garnfellow wrote: ↑
Are there any programs beyond Jump Control that would be helpful?

Auto-Repair fits with Repair Drones, but is expensive for small ships.
Virtual Crew can stand bridge watch in a pinch.
Virtual Gunner/Crew can replace gunners, but with low skill.
Evade for combat.
Fire Control aids the laser turret.
Expert can help crew.

The only “flaw” I see is the aforementioned crew and passenger movement due to stateroom placement, but that’s an easy fix. Everything in the stat sheet is a defensible choice.

My execution would be a little different, largely along the lines of AnotherDilbert’s suggestions:

A ship designed as an armed courier should be built expecting combat. So I’d upgrade the sensors and add some armor. Full size bridge as well (300 ton ships suffer under the MgT2 bridge size rules, unfortunately). Those changes would necessitate losing the aerofins, which are a luxury.

I’d keep the small amount of ammunition storage. I like the idea of being able to reload at least once after an encounter.

I’d say a few less passenger cabins to free up room for a little bit of cargo. As designed, it’s a courier for high value (i.e. high paying) passengers only. How often due you have 12 of these? 8 cabins with some cargo space would give it versatility to carry high value cargo as well. I see this as something that could be specified at purchase within the standard design. Or you could use the module concept similar to the POD Harrier Supplement to have flexibility in how you use cargo space.

You have five cabins plus four bunks for four crew plus three gunners. Even at single occupancy that leaves two extra spots. Marines / security? Doesn’t really matter. 1 dton for a weapons locker should be included regardless on an armed courier.

As a design issue, I’d note that it is built for 21 people, with only an air raft and no escape modules. So lets hope we don’t have to abandon ship. Free trader designs have the same issue, so I assume this is acceptable to those in need to unscheduled transport.

I would expect three flavors of this ship - one optimized for cargo, one for passengers, and one somewhere in the middle. This would follow the normal process for aircraft and ships today and in the past. This sort of ship would also be an ideal candidate for modularization for the cabins. The USAF KC-10 operates as a hybrid cargo/troop/refueller. They can install seating to support troop transports, they can take cargo containers or break-bulk cargo, and in the lower decks they carry fuel.

If you don't want to try and modularize the passenger compartments, then you would need specific flavors of the vessel for the specific needs. This would allow for routes or carriers that specialized in hot-shot cargo, or say VIP transports for passengers. I would expect this sort of craft to be employed by corporations, governments and very rich individuals. I don't see how it could make money in regular passenger service, it's too small and too specialized for regular use.

For small ships like this you really don't have the luxury of separate areas for crew and carried passengers. Keeping the bridge and engineering and even cargo hold locked out from regular passenger service makes sense. But with their small size you can't offer both crew and passengers a lot of recreational space due to size limitations. The ship design doesn't lend itself well to multiple decks, but that would be one way to keep the two sections separate (as was previously mentioned. That would mean crew could go about their business without running into passengers unless it was desired. This is something that would be preferred I think, as it's how yachts and cruise ships work (long-range airliners aren't quite the same since crew rest quarters are meant for short periods of occupation between duty shifts).

Armament would really vary between operators and perceived threat levels. Sandcasters are a good, cheap way to attempt to defend while you can run away. Missiles/lasers are much more offensive oriented than defensive (lasers do kind of straddle that). Most merchants, especially any that carry passengers, prefer to run whenever possible than try to fight it out with a pirate. There's no profit to be made in that sense.

Sensor upgrades to help evade, or at least detect, potential enemies is a good investment. For those that prefer flight over fight, emphasizing ECM defenses is an option (though possible more expensive for non-military operators).

Ships that spend most of their time traveling point to point could probably go without a medical bay. If you are really worried install a cold berth (or two) and save the space.

Much better now that there is clear separation between passengers and crew.

If you built that under modern regulations for ships, it would probably be uncertifiable (i.e. illegal) because of the requirement to provide for escape routes. Access to all airlocks passes though a single area - the cargo bay - and that's a problem in an emergency.

You can deal with a fire by venting air in the cargo bay, but if you crash on a planet and the lower part of the nose is buried in the ground (quite likely?) you can't get out of the ship.